Final Products

Music Video
Breaking Apart - Second One Down



Website

Second One Down - Band Website

Magazine Advert

Audience Feedback

Once my video had been completed I was very keen to get some feedback on it! I put a link onto Facebook and asked friends and family to leave their thoughts and feelings on it underneath.

My friends and family gave me some really good feedback. I am particularly pleased with the good comments on my editing, as it was the most taxing process throughout creating the product!

Filming - The Band Performance

When it came to filming my band performance I wanted the perfect location. Ideally I wanted to film it outside, but due to weather conditions and the difficulty of moving instruments outside, I decided that it would be much more sensible to film inside! This also meant more control of lighting, which - from watching Alternative Rock music videos - seems to be a crucial part of the performances.
There were two main music video's which influenced the type of lighting and shots I wanted to capture.

30 Seconds To Mars - Closer to the Edge

30 Seconds To Mars' music video for Closer to the Edge particularly inspired my choices of lighting and therefore the shots I wanted to capture. Although much of their performance was captured onstage, I wanted mine to be more of a 'studio' shoot. The first shot that really inspired my whole idea was

The complete darkness to begin with, then the lead singer's hand appears on the microphone, lit from the opposite side of the camera. As the singer steps up the the microphone, we can see the outline of his face and hair. It adds a sense of mystery to begin with, the identity of the singer is somewhat masked, yet the shot is beautiful and dark. I really wanted to create a shot like this, although not exactly the same. This meant that I would need some decent lights and a room that I could make as dark as possible! There was only one place I could really think of that was suitable - the school drama studio. As it already had proper lighting, was painted black and had black-out curtains. It also had a computer in it, which meant that I could play the track straight from it.

 Due to the build up of my track I wanted the performance to get more exciting throughout the video. It was decided that the band would all wear suits for the performance (luckily all of them owned one!). The performance would start of quite calm or 'chilled' and as the music built up, the guys would get more and more disheveled and sweaty. Of course, I didn't want them to get too worn out, as I wanted more than one take - so for the later parts of the performance I asked them to splash water onto themselves, so they appeared sweaty. I loved the effect the splashing water gave in the 30 Seconds to Mars video and wanted to achieve something similar. 

You Me At Six - If I Were In Your Shoes (Kerrang! Exclusive)

When it came to the kind of band shots I wanted to get I looked at a video of You Me At Six performing. I wanted to capture some different angles of both the performers and the instruments. Close-ups were a must of the band's faces and the instruments - especially hands and eyes!

The Set and Band

I was really pleased with how the filming for the band performance went! None of the boys are actually in a band, they're all from my class (with the exception of the drummer, my brother), but their performance was first class. It really helped that they all knew how to play their instruments as it made the performance so much more believable. Dan, the singer, was really busy with his own work in the lead up to filming, so he didn't manage to learn all the lyrics to my track. This was easy to overcome however, as I printed out the lyrics and stuck them to a white board in front of him. After a few rehearsals and test shots we just began. No one really knew how to properly use the lights but we managed to go crazy with them, whilst I was filming and this was extremely effective.

We took three takes initially of the whole song. I also filmed some of Dan on his own as he approached the microphone (30 Seconds to Mars style) from different angles. Once we'd filmed the first three takes, I asked the guys to go to the bathroom and splash water on their faces and we took a further three takes as well as individual takes of each performer. I am really pleased with the band's performance as they really got into it and used as much energy as possible without getting too worn out! Even I was getting worn out from trying to capture it all on camera! During and after filming I also made sure to take plenty of photographs of the band which would be used for my website.

Filming - The Narrative

Before Filming

After the changes to my narrative storyline, I realised that all of my footage could be filmed at Kristie's house. This means that I can drive to Kristie's whenever she has any free time such as after school and at weekends. Using her house as the location also means that costumes and props are easily available to us. For example, in the shots where Kristie is dressing up, we can go through her clothes to find appropriate outfits that fit my ideas.

Much of my footage would be filmed in Kristie's bedroom. Luckily it was large and light so I would be able to get different shots from different angles. I did worry that Kristie wouldn't have a large enough mirror for the shots I wanted to get, but it turned out that Kristie had a huge mirror opposite her bed! She also had lots of fashion magazines which I would need for my shots, so we spread these out on the bed in preparation for the first few shots. I also wrote a list of all the extra props I would need to take to Kristie's which included things like a set of weighing scales and a bag of chocolate.

After Filming

In all, I did several sessions of filming with Kristie. As most days I went after school, it didn't stay light for very long so these sessions were quite short. Kristie was perfect to work with. Before we started filming each time, I would explain what I wanted Kristie to do, or in some cases show her. She was really willing to do whatever I wanted, even when she had to do it over and over, so that I could get the right shots. Below are some of them:

Medium shot - Kristie infront of her bedroom mirror

Close up - looking out of her bedroom window

Medium shot - sitting on her bed with the magazines

Over the shoulder shot - brushing her hair in the mirror

Medium shot - in the kitchen

POV shot - on the scales

Close up shot - weighing food

Medium shot - magazine cut outs

Close up -  opening chocolates

Close up - crying (we dripped water down Kristie's face to create the tears)

Extreme close up - tears on magazine (I squeezed a tissue soaked in water to drip onto the magazine)

Close up - ripping magazines (I brought an old gossip magazine rather than using Kristie's)

Close up - clothes strewn over bathroom (we tidied up afterwards!)

Close up - Kristie fainting (I got Kristie to hold the camera in front of her face as she fell, to get a different but effective shot)

Narrative Storyline Alterations

Rather than focus on the direct exploitation of underage models, I want to look more indirectly at the effects of sexualisation of young girls in the media. I felt that the idea of direct exploitation is a very sensitive subject and I would have to be careful with how I went about filming it, as I had some trouble with my magazine advert; as it implied nudity I had to be very careful about who my model was.

I went back to the drawing board! I had recently watched an in-depth documentary on Channel 5 entitled "Kate Thorton - Anorexic: My Secret Past". It focused on the actresses childhood and teenage years, when the pressure of aspiring to be an actress caused her to develop Anorexia Nervosa. Again, I was reminded of the Dove advert for their campaign.

Using the combined ideas of how advertising in the fashion industry puts pressure on girls to look good and the development of psychological disorders, I will still be able to use some of my original ideas. This means that I can safely explore the controversies and won't have to worry about representing something which is too risky! However, I still need to be sensitive about the subject and how I use Kristie to portray Anorexia and the causes.

Names, Names, Names!

As I need to start creating my poster and digipak, I really needed to come up with names for the band, album and the song! It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I began by looking at the lyrics in my song for song names and jotted down any names that came to mind. I also looked at the names of current alternative rock bands on Wikipedia to get a feel for the types of names I could use.

The names I have decided on are:

Band Name - Second One Down

Album Name - Naked Truth   (second choice was Preserving Common Sense)

Song Name - Breaking Apart   (second choice was Mirrors)

Shot List Vs. Storyboard

As I've begun to really plan what shots I want in my video, I have found it increasingly difficult to log them. I started to create a storyboard, but I found that it took much too long and it was hard to decide which shots could go where. I just couldn't create a sequence of drawings. 


I then decided to have a look at shot lists. I created a template on Word which I could fill in as I came up with shot ideas:

I found it much easier using the shot list, because I want many of my shots and cuts to coincide with the beats of the song. This means that the shot list is precise and I can shoot efficiently. It can also be used during the editing process. To fill it in I listened to the music, looked at the lyrics and visualised what I want to happen at certain points within the video.


Using the shot list has proved really effective, however I also like to sketch out a shot here and there to see what it would look like.

Shot Ideas

Whilst watching last week's episode of 'Casualty', a sequence of shots caught my eye. The storyline has been on-going based on a ex-prostitute, Annie. At the beginning of the episode Annie was visited by another of the prostitutes who wanted to warn her to run away before their pimp found out where she was. It turns out that the pimp found Annie's house and was waiting there when the other prostitute turns up.

I thought it was interesting how the different shots conveyed someone being watched, in a sinister way. I'd really like to try and create the same effect within my music video!

Casualty Shot Analysis

View more presentations from penfolddolly1

Exploitation of Young Female Artists

I made this video to explain a few examples.

Sexualisation of Women in the Media

I really wanted to look more closely at how the media industry began to sexualise women through advertising, television and film. I began by looking at some older adverts and discovered that the objectification of female bodies has become more and more apparent over the years.

During and after the 80's most picked up on the notion that sex really does sell. It became more common to see increasingly sexual advertisements. The American Apparel and Gossip Girl interest me in particular because of the ages of the girls; they look too young to be featured in these adverts.

Now I have a basic idea of the ways in which sexualisation and objectification have developed in the media, I would like to focus in on music videos and the objectification of both female artists and video extras used in male artists' videos. It is also important that I look at contemporary examples of young girls in music videos.

Location Shoot

As I changed my concept, I have also changed my location ideas! I still want to use a forest, however I thought that if I filmed in the forest near my house, it would be very difficult to carry all my equipment up there. I also wanted some bedroom and living room scenes, however I did not feel that my own house would be suitable. This is because it's very homely and it's clearly lived in by adults too. I want Kristie's character to come across as isolated - and thought a flat setting would suit my video a lot more; especially a messy, uncared for one. 
I then remembered about what could be the perfect location. At my Dad's work, there are some unused portacabins which were used for training purposes - set up like grotty flats! Even better, there is a small wood at the rear of the portacabins. I decided to go and have a look at both locations, to take some photographs and in order to get an idea of how I could use them!

I think these locations will be perfect! I can set up the portacabins however I would like and they are suitably grotty! One even had a bed in that I could use. I also like the look of the woods, they seem to be slightly more sinister than the forest near my house, as the trees are smaller and more gnarled looking.

More Idea Developments

After my last post, I have been thinking even more about this 'beauty pressure' concept. I want the music video to convey Kristie's desperation to be a top model. She finally gets spotted by a modelling agent who is interested in her. He is somewhat older than her, which I want to be obvious and he is using her for his own personal gratification. The agency begin to take advantage of her (almost grooming her) and Kristie knows she is out of her depth but doesn't know how to get herself out. Nor does she want to, for fear of losing her opportunity of becoming a star. Kristie finds herself losing her own voice and as her modelling career and agent begin to take over her life, she starts to lose control.


I am really pleased with the idea I have come up with! The sexualisation of young girls has been a controversial and widely discussed debate in the media recently and I feel this would be a really interesting way of presenting it. 

I was also reminded of a Dove Beauty Campaign advert which I had seen entitled 'Onslaught':

I absolutely love the shots of all of the posters and advertising the girl is exposed to as they're so quick. It really emphasises the pressure girls are put under.

Changes in my Concept Idea!

I have been somewhat indecisive when coming up with a final idea for my concept, as I was struggling to make much progress with my stalker/forest idea. Although, in theory I liked the idea, when trying to create a storyboard I found it difficult to develop it into a proper concept. I started thinking again, listening to my song and reading through the lyrics over and over. As I was browsing through some old school documents of mine, I came across a presentation I made on representations of women in the media. In this presentation I had particularly focused on the pressure young girls are put under to look beautiful and slim and how many aspire to be like the models so commonly seen in advertising. What with Kristie's modelling, I thought I could base my video around this concept, tying in some of the ideas I already had!


I also remembered an Evanescence music video for 'Everybody's Fool':

The pressure conveyed in the video is really clear and I really like the contrast of the character's real appearance and feelings compared with her bright and happy roles.


The concept also fits really well with the lyrics! I feel that I can make a better narrative out of this idea. 

Digipak Styles

These are a few examples of the different panel designs you can use for a digipak. I found these on a really great website, which makes all of the digipaks from 100% Green Forestry Practices Certified board stock and high-quality vegetable based ink on both the boards and the discs. What I really love about these digipaks in particular is the custom designs people have ordered. I especially like this one: 

I really like the unique idea of the middle panel having a pocket in it for a small booklet. This would be great for a booklet featuring the lyrics of the songs, which you often see with albums. I would also like to use a 6 panel digipak as there is more opportunity for adding different features such as a list of tracks, the lyric booklet, disc tray and plenty of images. I'm really excited about creating a digipak and can't wait to decide what I would like the end result to look like!

Digipak and Album Cover Research

I have started to look at different digipak designs to help me form an idea of what I would like my own digipak to look like.


The traditional and more common form of CD packages are jewel cases. The clear plastic cases are made up of three pieces of plastic. Digipaks however, typically consists of paperboard or card panels with one or more plastic trays to hold the disc(s). You can also get digipaks which have 'soft-spots' rather than a plastic tray, usually a small circle of felt which you can pop the CD onto. Digipak editions of albums are often of limited edition and contain bonus tracks.


I began by looking at a few different digipaks from all genres, to compare and contrast them, as it's quite difficult to pin-point just what alternative rock is as a genre. It's a pretty vast area as there are so many sub-genres within it. I feel that my track is most likely 'noise-pop'. Also, through my band and record label research I realised that often alternative rock groups and artists use a fusion of many different genres to create their own 'unique' sound. 

My favourite cover out of these is probably the Dead Weather: Horehound cover. The darkness and tree like shapes in the background are similar to the sinister theme I wanted to convey in my own video. Though, if I wanted to base my digipak on a lighter tone I also like the Paramore cover featuring the butterfly as it is simple yet effective and the bright butterfly wings really catch your eye.